Makes and Models

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Thursday – White Bling Thing

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Jeremy The Swift Sport has just arrived and appears to have brought summer with it. Small, sparking white and rather cute, I get the feeling I’m going to get along fine with this lukewarm hatchback.

There is nothing spectacular about the styling of the Suzuki but it looks purposeful – like a little car that wants to be driven.

Inside, unlike the slightly overcooked Adam we tested last week, the trim is no frills and functional. There is plenty of plastic and the buttons and dials are more budget than bold. However, what it lacks in chic it makes up for in driving performance!

I’ve only driven the Sport a couple of miles and it’s already put a smile on my face – even though I don’t like white cars!

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Friday – A Sound Machine

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Jeremy  The Adam is aimed at a youth market – so in a bid to feel 21 again, I’ve been listening at Absolute 80s Radio on the baby Vauxhall’s thumping stereo. It sounds great – even Dire Straits!

It’s amazing how in-car entertainment systems have become so good. DAB helps of course but using Bluetooth to ‘suck’ music from my phone to the unit is another simple and safe benefit. No fiddling with CDs, USB cables or AUX-in wires.

For a little car, the Adam boxes above its weight in the infotainment department. A touchscreen display makes it even easier to use, although there was no sat nav in our test car.

I’ve just returned from a couple of days sea-kayaking in Scotland and at Bristol Airport, I had a real struggle finding the Adam. In fact, I thought it had been stolen when I couldn’t see it in the car park. The car is so small, it was completely hidden being a Range Rover Sport and Ford Focus.

The boot area is just big enough for two large rucksacks and not much else. Dropping the split-fold back seats helps but for a long weekend away, this is really a car that is only big enough for two adults and all their kit. At least it’s big on style.

 

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Tuesday – Golfing Technology

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Jeremy I’m ticking off the hours until they pick up the Golf today. We are not quite on first name terms but a bond has been established between us. It’s like having your best mate on standby for every eventuality.

Instantly recognisable as VW‘s iconic hatchback, under the skin, this new Mk VII version is fully equipped with technology that would have been unrecognisable when the first model was launched almost 40 years ago. It helps make an already great car even more desirable.

The vehicle selected as World Car of the Year cossets the driver with every conceivable aid in GTD form. Electronic handbrake, stop/start engine, a range of engine modes for different types of driving, front and rear parking sensors – none of these would have been even dreamt of in 1974.

So, far from meddling with a successful product to create the Mk VII, VW designers have just raised the bar for all other hatchbacks to follow. Smoother, faster, lighter and better equipped, the new Golf is everything you would expect it to be. You just wonder what they will do with the Mk VIII…

 

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Monday – The Fun of Golfing

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Jessica Yesterday morning, as I drove through Stroud in my trusty 200,000-mile BMW, I passed the entrance to ‘Wheel Nuts 2013’. It’s a classic car rally where many beautifully preserved cars were trekking, with every owner happy and excited at the gate about the fun day ahead.

It got me thinking about how much we love old cars – cars that have character, cars that remind us of times and stages of our own. I think we love a design ethic to translate across the years and to find some nostalgia in a car that is available now. Somehow VW have managed this with the Golf.

If I think back many years to a pale blue Golf I had with go faster black stripes, I felt the ghost of the original as I started to drive CarCouture’s current Mark VII version. With all its modern features and no nonsense dashboard, it still has the fun, drivability and reliable feel that I remember  from my own Golf – just wrapped in a modern casing.

VW has developed the shape and embraced technological developments but the essence of this car, which has always existed in a special category of its own in terms of demographic uptake and no nonsense fun, is very much there.

It is sound on the road, corners well and the handling is excellent. So altogether, it is a  car you could take anywhere at any stage of your life and still have a little fun.
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Sunday – Golf, Lights, Action…

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Jeremy Eight months ago I went to buy a Mk VI Volkswagen Golf. I drove out of the dealership in a VW Beetle. Mid-life crisis? Maybe but in black, with a glass roof, cool wheels and the latest ‘squat’ look, I enjoyed a temporary moment of madness.

What really clinched the deal was the Beetle’s interior. Great seats, quality switchgear and illuminated door trim – neat lines of subtle light that ran along the length of the doors above the arm rests. A control on the dashboard could even change the colour ‘mood’ from blue, to red to white!

Last night, driving home in CarCouture’s Mk VII Golf was the first time I had taken the hatchback out in the dark. The cabin is a relaxed and refined place to be and VW has used the same door lighting fitted in the Beetle to brighten up the Golf interior.

Now, Golf drivers aren’t the sort of people who want to change their mood lighting at the flick of a switch – that would be a little racy for the benchmark hatchback. But the interior of the Golf is beautifully understated, supremely comfortable and, with features like the lighting system, you feel like you are travelling first class.

 

 

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Tuesday – Knickerbocker Glory

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Jessica I know it isn’t all about colour or indeed size, however, a Range Rover in cherry red that looks like it should be proudly sitting on top of a Knickerbocker Glory is somewhat of an anomaly.

Colour does matter and how the colour ranges are put together for any car manufacturer is a mystery to me, colour has its own visual language and interpretations, it speaks volumes.

Driving around in a red Range Rover Evoque was a little disconcerting, I didn’t feel a proud moment when I met it for the first time at the station en route to (rainy) Cornwall, I wanted to get in quickly and drive away before anyone would stop and wonder what I had been thinking when I chose that colour for that car.

Colour aside what does the Evoque evoke, what is it trying to be, is what I found myself asking.

Well, it’s sporty in an urban, I want a four wheel drive way, the lines are stylish and it does say Range Rover on the bonnet!  The price tag suggests a deep pocket so I found myself wondering on the target demographic …
Too small to fit a family and their luggage, too urban to warrant having one if you lived in a rural area where winters are a problem.  So that leaves a school run car for a 2.2 family or a weekend run around for a professional person or professional couple who want to play at sporty country pursuits (not polo as you would have trouble fitting the kit in!) still not really sure as the week comes to a close.
Either way it leaves me wishing that the handling on the motorway was more refined, although it drives well in town and on B roads, but the exterior does not fit with the driving experience for me and I would be prepared to bet that professional sporty types might want a more refined motorway experience too.
There was a rather strange rubberised covering on the dash area and sorry to mention colour again but red perforated leather look seats (not matching the exterior colour ) which although comfortable were looking a little worse for wear after only one week of use.
Overall, because the Evoque looks good so I  was very much looking forward to a dash down to Cornwall, despite the colour,  but for the £40,000 I found this Range Rover a little disappointing.
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Saturday – Evoque Illuminations

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Jeremy I’ve just returned from a horribly early, Saturday morning drop off at Bath railway station. It’s the first time I’ve driven the Evoque in the dark but two contrasting points have now surfaced.

The first is that I was flashed countless times on the trip by irate, oncoming drivers who though my headlights were on full beam. They were not but still worried that I might have my fogs on, I pulled over in the morning mist to check those too. If the wheels od the SD4 are blingtastic, wait until you see the lights! I feel like one of those juggernaut drivers who adorn the front of their cab with a spectacular display.

The second point is that the Evoque has the funkiest door tread plates I’ve seen in a long time. They illuminate in blue in the dark – brilliant!

And finally, have you ever seen larger door mirrors on a car? My neighbour’s young son has decided to call the Evoque  the ‘Range Rover Elephant’ because they look like giant ears. Not bad for a five-year-old.

CarCouture is heading off to Cornwall this afternoon, to an organic Dairy Ice Cream farm, near Tintagel. The lane to the farm should prove a good test for all those off-road buttons on the centre console…

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Thursday – A Range Rover For The New Generation

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Jeremy My late friend Tom Love was one of the first people in the country to own a Range Rover. He began a lifelong obsession with the 4×4 in 1970, when the original Rangey was only offered with three-doors and vinyl matting on the floor to make it easier to wash clean with a hose pipe!

Back then, Tom would be invited down from his home in Scotland to collect his new Range Rover from the factory. He would stay for lunch with one of the directors and then drive back home. The top brass would often ask how Tom thought they could improve the Rangey – to which Tom told them ‘add two more doors and an automatic gearbox‘. Strangely, enough, it wasn’t long before Land Rover did just that…

I’m not sure what Tom would have made of the Evoque. He certainly wouldn’t have fitted in it, being a large man who liked red wine and only ate steak, just steak – without potato or salad. I’m pretty sure he would have disapproved of the bling wheels and red seats but he would also fully understand how a brand like Range Rover needed to evolve to survive.

With starting prices at around £30,000, the Evoque has truly brought Range Rover ownership to a whole new market. It is beautifully put together too – with a first class interior, quality fittings and doors that shut with a reassuring clunk. Tom would have liked that, if he could have squeezed in…

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Tuesday – In The Mode

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Jeremy My 1972 Series 3 Land Rover has a lot of metal rods poking up from the floor. Apart from a rather vague gearstick, there’s one for overdrive, two for high and low ratio gears, with a handbrake position in a pretty awkward spot too.

I mention this because the Evoque has none – not even a conventional handbrake. Gears are selected via a rotating dial, the handbrake is push button, and to select different suspension settings, a selection of buttons is provided. It’s totally foolproof – provided you read the instruction manual.

This is all designed to make using the baby Range Rover on various terrains a much simpler process. Pressing a button is easier than wrestling with a stick but for some reason, it doesn’t feel as intuitive. Jump in the Evoque and you might want to know what everything does before attempting to go off-road.

Despite its short dimensions, the Evoque is comfortable on city streets in ‘Normal’ suspension mode but for more spirited driving, the ‘Dynamic’ setting is better. I imagine most drivers won’t even touch these buttons unless they are going off-road proper but the choice is there.

So far, the Evoque is proving the perfect vehicle for all driving conditions. Only Malin the Hungarian Viszla is finding the boot a bit small – but then he has been used to a Series 3 for five years…

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Monday – The Evoque Has Landed

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Jeremy Let’s face it, SUVs don’t often come out of the design studio eye-catchingly beautiful. The need for all-round ability means good looks often have to be sacrificed for load capacity and extra ground clearance.

Which is why the Range Rover Evoque has genuinely broken the mould. At last, here is a compact SUV that you don’t need children, dogs or an interesting sport involving Lycra to justify ownership.

Our Firenze red Evoque has just arrived and already I’m looking for excuses to drive it. Low, squat and purposeful, the slim side windows and low roof give this Range Rover a thoroughly modern appeal.

The contemporary shape makes other SUVs look positively old-fashioned by comparison. We also have some suitably bling chrome wheels on our test car – let’s see how they look after seven days of Wiltshire mud and dirt…

Not quite so sure about the red leather interior but I’ll let Jessica have her say on that later in the week.